Category Archives: Sound

Students on the MSc Sound for the Moving Image gave up their free time on weekends and evenings to create the soundscape for the independent film Tam, a short film that has been well received internationally.

Tam was already won an Award of Recognition at this years IndieFESTin the USA, and will be coming to more festivals this year. Look out for more news in the near future.

We would like to congratulate the students on their excellent work and wish them all a great summer as they complete their degree, as well a lucrative film career in the years ahead!

The Glasgow School of Art is now accepting applications for the 2017/18 GSA Scholarships, and full details of the awards and the application process available on the GSA website.

Some of these scholarships are specifically for study at SimVis on our masters programmes in sound and visualisation – including international scholarships with awards of £2000 to support fees and living costs – and there are similar awards available for Scottish and EU students applying to the Postgraduate Welcome Scholarships.

Many thanks to local Post-Production specialists, Savalas, who have sponsored a new scholarship for students applying to our MDes Sound for the Moving Image. Savalas is Scotland’s largest audio-post facility, and was founded by 4 friends in 1998 on the back of a small bank loan and local authority grant that has become a well-established part of Scotland’s post-production community. Without the initial financial commitment and endorsement, it would have been virtually impossible for the company to secure premises and literally get out of the bedroom. Savalas hope that this Scholarship will provide a similar level of support and acknowledgment to the successful applicant.

All scholarships, including the Savalas award, are being advertised to all GSA applicants, and can be applied for till the deadline of Wednesday 31st May 2017.

As previously mentioned, SimVis lecturers Ronan Beslin and Paul Wilson had the opportunity to present two guest lectures at this year’s Glasgow Film Festival: Life of a Foley Artist, and Anatomy of a Soundtrack. We are happy to report that both sessions were filled to capacity and were a huge success. Well done!

During Life of a Foley Artist, Simvis’ Paul Wilson and Ronan Breslin had a mock fight with live foley sound provided by Mark Daniels and Matt Collings. Photos by GFF photographer Martina Ciliento

Paul noted: “It was a great privilege to be invited as guests of the Glasgow Film Festival. Our revealing and humorous sonic deconstruction, accompanied in depth discussion of theory, historical and current practise, sparking a lively Q&A session in the presentation room and afterward in the lovely bar of the CCA. It was fabulous to be able to screen the latest outputs from our studios (‘Tam’ by Greenlight Creative) in which our hard working post-graduate students produced exciting Sound Design, Foley and Mixing: The film has been subsequently submitted to the Edinburgh Film Festival and The BBC are currently considering it for broadcast. Both evenings were ‘sold-out’ and we look forward to joining with or GFF colleagues in future years.”

Students may want to check out Anatomy of the Soundtrack, a free talk at the Glasgow Film Festival on the 17th of February being presented by Ronan Breslin and Paul Wilson from the School of Simulation and Visualisation.

With over twenty years of sound design experience on over 250 different projects (having worked for the BBC, Channel 4, and GFF16 title 16 Years Till Summer), Ronan Breslin and Paul Wilson will deconstruct and reconstruct the key building blocks of a film soundtrack. From basic sync dialogue to complex sound design and rich musical scores, Paul and Ronan will delve into the fundamental frameworks of how a film speaks to its audience via sound and music.

The DDS’s own Ronan Breslin, programmer leader for the MDes in Sound for moving Image, had an opportunity to offer his insights into running a recording studio at one of the Audio Engineering Societies recent meetings. Answering questions on how the industry of sound engineering has changed with advancing technology, and how to complete in a market where home recording can be done on portable laptops.

Details about the event (and further upcoming events) can be found here.

“The event was very well attended by a very enthusiastic group of sound production students and AES members. The attendees enthusiasm was evident via their well-considered questions and discussions at the social event afterwards. It was a privilege to share a platform with eminent musician/engineers Paul McGeechan and Brian McNeil. Thanks to the AES for having me.” – Ronan Breslin

The DDS, in collaboration with Birmingham Conservatoire’s Integra Lab, have completed work on their Transforming Transformation project – a new human-centred approach that allows musicians and sound designers to manipulate sound through a 3D virtual environment.

Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Transforming Transformation enables sound sources to be “touched”, “grabbed”, “dragged”, and “placed” within a 3D virtual environment. Through this system, a sound source’s real-world location corresponds to its spatial position within a virtual acoustic space that can be manipulated. In other words, if a sound designer wants a sound to appear to come from behind the listener, they just “pick it up” and “move it to the back” of the virtual space.

With the initial work on the project complete, the project team plans to continue to refine the virtual environment and address any key issues identified in the project, and we wish them continued success!

More information on the development of Transforming Transformation can be found here, and you can also read about the projects published results here.

We would like to congratulate Sound for Moving Image student Kevin Murray, who has won a The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Scotland New Talent Award for his short film “Paperclip”. Well done!

I didn’t even entertain the idea of getting nominated, never mind winning, and as such had absolutely no prep; even in my head, for an acceptance speech.

As I still didn’t believe I had a chance of winning once I had been nominated, I fully intended to have a nice time being at the awards and drinking all the free booze. It’s only good fortune and my friend Colin (Who did the camera work for paperclip) being incredibly late, that I wasn’t completely smashed on free wine before things even began.

Upon winning, I went proper giddy, as is evident from the official BAFTA photo of all the winners doing there best to look regal and winnery, and me laughing like a maniac beside my pal Danny Boyle.

This week in the Glasgow CCA is Sound Thought – the University of Glasgow’s annual postgraduate sonic arts festival.

Through a series of concerts, screenings, performances, discussions and workshops, the three-day festival will show how research and practice from a range of sound and music disciplines communicate across artistic canons.

DDS PhD student Jessica Argo and tutor Ronan Breslin both have works that will be performed as part of the festival, this Thursday evening.

Jessica will be presenting a paper and providing samples of Soundscapes used in her research: “Immersive Soundscapes to elicit Anxiety in Exposure Therapy: Physical Desensitization and Psychological Catharsis”

Jessica will present physiological data analysis from her experiments, to reveal the most powerful and consistent anxiety-triggering sounds. Questionnaire responses also offer insight into participants’ emotional involvement and reactions.

Ronan’s work goes under the title “Adolescent Nuclear Angst…Or how I Learned to Stick My Head Between my Knees“.

Ronan notes:

As a child of the late 70’s and early 80’s my abiding memory was of the malevolent spectre of nuclear annihilation. Ronald Reagan was elected US president promising to confront an “evil empire” and in my school playground we fretted about the latest scare-mongering TV documentary or drama depicting the imminent apocalypse. The Soviet Union was the evil bogeyman waiting in the woods; not witches, demons or monsters. After watching one particular film “Threads”, a 10-year old me recalls asking my all-knowing, military-trained, strong and protective dad what we would do if there was a nuclear war. “Stick our heads between our knees and kiss our arses’ goodbye” was his glib reply.

This AV piece will have resonance as a warning from the past as well as offering me a chance for me to finally get payback on my dad for his inconsiderate flippancy.

Congratulations to DDS Grad Kevin Murray (MDes Sound for Moving Image, 2015) who has been nominated for a BAFTA Scotland NewTalent award for his short film “Paperclips” – created as part of his work for the MDes.